Michael Calderone of the Politico complains “Not all Kennedy critics hold fire”, though I don’t recall too many on the left concerned about that level of decorum when President Reagan died. But this takes the cake, if it isn’t satire to begin with:
We expected a right-wing smear campaign against the late Ted Kennedy, but who knew the Republican attack machine could out-Twitter its progressive rivals? The late Ted Kennedy was enjoying a ride at the top of Twitter’s trending topics earlier today — following what we feel ought to be called the #MJbump — but even this morning it became clear that a backlash was brewing, even in 140-characters-or-less land.
That’s now become something of an orchestrated movement, as ghoulishly insensitive right-wingers bumped Ted out of the top spot. Well, one ghoulishly-insensitive right-winger, actually. It was Rush Limbaugh, and he helped move JAY-Z into the top spot by responding to Jigga’s new diss track.
But evidently there’s another vast conspiracy afoot, which has now succeeded in moving the search term “Mary Jo Kopechne” — the victim of Chappaquiddick — ahead of the late Senator. If you want to get a taste of right-wing bile, this has become the non-hashtagged battle to follow. To help, we’re setting up the feeds below so you can watch in real-time.
Yes, let’s all banish that name to the memory hole.
Update: And yes, this classic Onion headline is indeed satire, and proof (once again) of Orrin Judd’s comedic theorem.